Cory Gardner uses rookie year to 'establish' himself in Senate

Colorado's newest senator takes a different path than Cruz, Trump

Cory Gardner and his 11-year-old daughter, Alyson, work with a new "Star Wars" virtual-reality viewer in the kitchen of their home in Yuma. Joining them are Gardner's wife, Jaime, and their 1-year-old daughter, Caitlyn. Their son, 4-year-old Thatcher, is not pictured. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

Cory Gardner was outside his home in Yuma on Wednesday, December 23, 2015 with his wife Jaime, daughter Alyson, 11, and son Thatcher, 4 years old, youngest daughter Caitlyn, 1, was taking a nap. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

WASHINGTON — In the D.C. scene, the Gridiron Club is about as establishment as it gets. And at the group's December dinner this year, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner of Colorado was holding court as if he were a lifelong member.

Surrounded by reporters in black-tie attire, the rookie Republican senator embraced his role as guest comedian — taking shots at Donald Trump's ego, Chris Christie's waistline and even the club itself, which dates back to 1885 and admits only veteran journalists into its ranks.

"I'm really glad to be here," he joked. "Republicans need to continue our outreach to groups that traditionally vote against us, like a room full of reporters."

The crowd ate it up, and, with that, Gardner notched another win in a political charm offensive that dates back a decade but has gone into hyperdrive this year.

Since his election to the Senate in 2014, Gardner has been a whirlwind about town, cultivating alliances with party leaders, administration officials and even U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., whom Gardner's party wants to unseat next year.

The outreach has paid dividends for Gardner, who has used his growing clout to become a regular on the cable-news circuit while influencing national policy from Veterans Affairs spending to North Korean sanctions.

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His rise is all the more remarkable considering it comes at a time when many voters — especially those in Gardner's party — have grown weary of the D.C. crowd and have thrown their support behind malcontents such as Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

"Besides a place to make crony capitalist deals, why do we have a Congress?" wrote one recent commentator on his Face book page.

Yet the disconnect has had little impact so far on Gardner, who coasted through his primary last year and was hailed as a GOP hero after he beat Mark Udall, the incumbent Democrat.

But rumblings from his right flank could set a ceiling on Gardner's efforts to realize his ambitions; there is already speculation about a future run for the White House.

How much this tension will affect his career trajectory depends on a number of factors, such as his effectiveness in the Senate and the future mood of GOP voters.

All of it, however, boils down to two essential questions: Can Gardner keep threading the needle between conservative warrior and D.C. dealmaker? And do Colorado voters even want him to do that?

In his first year as U.S. Senator, Cory Gardner has set himself apart from other newcomer, conservatives by choosing a mores statesmanlike approach. Gardner was at his home in Yuma on Wednesday, December 23, 2015 with his wife Jaime, daughters Alyson, 11, far right, and Caitlyn, 1, and son Thatcher, 4 years old getting ready for Christmas. (Cyrus McCrimmon, The Denver Post)

Walking that line is hard in today's Washington. Because of long-standing gridlock, which limits debate on individual bills, lawmakers often are forced to compress months of policy into massive, must-pass spending measures. That dynamic was on display this month when Congress approved a $1.1 trillion spending bill that was linked to a $680 billion package of tax breaks.

The legislation had plenty of provisions that Republicans supported, such as the repeal of a ban on U.S. exports of crude oil, but the sticker shock is nonetheless jarring to those concerned about the debt and deficit — as well activists who wanted to use it to defund Planned Parenthood, which it does not.

Gardner was one of 65 senators to back the spending bill, but his vote hasn't sat well with everyone back home. Republican state Rep. Justin Everett said he considers Gardner a likable guy, but that his vote in favor of the spending package didn't make sense.

"You would think this is exactly where he would want to draw a line in the sand," he said. "This is not a fiscally responsible budget."

Adding to his frustration, he said, is his belief that Gardner has been "buddying around with Michael Bennet."

"I don't see why Cory is going to benefit from moderating his image because he already has proven he can win (as a conservative)," Everett said.

Notably, Gardner and Bennet teamed up this year on legislation that targets one element of Washington dysfunction: the threat of a government shutdown that is now common to debates over big spending bills.

Their measure would impose strict rules on senators in the event of a shutdown, including the possibility of arrest if these lawmakers skip town during a work stoppage.

Gardner "understands very well that people in Colorado expect us to work in a bipartisan way — not just with each other but with other senators as well," Bennet said. "And he's done that. At a time when this place is riven with rank partisanship, he has not, in any way, contributed to that."

That approach stands in contrast to Cruz, who this past fall pushed Congress to defund Planned Parenthood and was willing to risk a government shutdown to do it.

Said Gardner: "Sometimes I think people confuse the people who are out there trying to get in the news and the people who are just trying to get the work done."

Other partnerships

Although the anti-shutdown bill was their flashiest collaboration, Gardner and Bennet had other partnerships this year too.

Both called on the Environmental Protection Agency to reimburse local governments for the Gold King Mine disaster, and the two backed a bill in July that would help marijuana companies do business with banks.

"We have an incredibly strong working relationship," Gardner said. "I think the first meeting I had after the (2014) election was with Sen. Bennet to talk about ways that we were going to work together and help Colorado."

It's an arrangement that also has political benefits in the swing state of Colorado, where both senators can benefit from a record of bipartisanship.

For example, the two are working on so-called "good Samaritan" legislation that would make it easier for third-party groups to clean up abandoned mines, a significant source of pollution in the West.

But Gardner has stopped short of supporting an effort, spearheaded by Democrats, to reform an 1872 mining law that would impose new royalties on the mining industry to help pay for cleanup.

It's part of a record that environmentalists have called good but not great.

"He's doing the right thing more often than not," said Pete May smith of Conservation Colorado. "Now, let's see real leadership."

Maysmith pointed to Gardner's vote against legislation that would pave the way for states to take control of federal lands, which could lead to more drilling and logging.

However, Maysmith said Gardner could do more, such as crafting bills to protect wilderness areas in Colorado.

Repealing Obamacare

On some issues, however, Gardner has been anything but bipartisan.

He supported a long-standing goal of Republicans by voting in December to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, and Gardner has been a forceful opponent of efforts by President Barack Obama to move terrorism detainees at Guantanamo Bay to Colorado, which has been mentioned as a possibility.

"I will not sit by and allow the president to illegally transfer these prisoners to Colorado so he can please the media and liberal elites," wrote Gardner in a fall fundraising appeal.

The issues of abortion and contraception, which stalked him during the 2014 campaign, also have stayed in the limelight.

While Gardner has talked at length about making it easier to get over-the-counter contraception — even filing a bill to that effect last spring — Cathy Alderman of Planned Parenthood was skeptical.

She said his push to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which provides for no-cost contraception, speaks to Gardner's true motives and that this effort, coupled with his own bill, runs the risk of making it more expensive to get birth control.

"We see this legislation as disingenuous at best," said Alderman, speaking of Gardner's bill on over-the-counter contraception.

Yet the strongest example of Gardner's partisanship may have come in March when he joined with 46 Senate Republicans in writing a letter to Iranian leaders that warned any nuclear deal cut with Obama could be revoked after he leaves office.

The missive drew fire from all sides, including The Wall Street Journal, as violating an unspoken rule about U.S. politics ending at the water's edge.

At the time, Gardner said the letter was, given the stakes, necessary. "We're not just talking about trading goods here," he said. "We're talking about the very future of the world."

The letter marked one of the few times in 2015 that Gardner bucked someone in party leadership; in this case, it was U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who chairs the Foreign Relations committee, of which Gardner is a member.

Asked about that letter, Corker declined to comment. "I don't want to get into each step along the way," he said.

But Corker was effusive about Gardner's work generally, which included a trip to East Asia and a meeting with South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

Corker noted Gardner's efforts to keep Congress focused on North Korea — with a bill that would add new sanctions — at a time when lawmakers have been dealing with high-profile problems in the Middle East.

"He has brought that issue to the forefront," Corker said.

Much more outspoken

Although generally cautious in the Senate, Gardner has been much more outspoken on presidential politics.

After U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio had a strong showing at the GOP debate in Boulder, Gardner announced his support for the Florida Republican.

The endorsement prompted a round of chatter about this new generation of Republicans — Rubio is 44, Gardner is 41 — and even a suggestion from respected pundit Stuart Rothenberg that Rubio should consider Gardner for vice president.

"In a party full of elected officials who look and sound angry and bitter, the Colorado Republican invariably is cheerful and optimistic," Rothenberg wrote. "That doesn't mean that Gardner is happy with the direction of the country or defends the status quo, but it does mean he is amiable and approachable."

Backing Rubio also allowed Gardner to take a more vocal stance on the race. He called Trump a " buffoon" for his position that Muslims should be blocked from entering the United States.

That Gardner has aligned himself more with the establishment wing of his party continues a pattern he started early in his career.

The Yuma native worked for former Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., before joining the statehouse in 2005, which Gardner used as a launchpad to win a U.S. House seat in 2010. There he quickly established himself as a conduit to leadership.

Asked about the establishment label, Gardner said it was "something that people want to say (about) somebody who gets elected.

"I look at myself as someone who just fights for Colorado, and I don't care whatever labels anybody throws out there."

New VA funding

Gardner's ties to the GOP establishment — though derided by some Colorado conservatives — have proved critical on one issue: funding of a new hospital in Aurora for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

In March, the VA announced the cost had leapt to $1.73 billion, which was nearly triple its 2011 estimated price of $604 million.

Although Colorado lawmakers weren't directly responsible for the cost overrun, the price spike put them in a perilous position. Without more cash, construction would stop.

But fiscal conservatives were leery of yet another government expense, and Congress already was furious with the VA because of a wait-list scandal in Phoenix the year before that was linked to the deaths of veterans.

Key lawmakers, such as then-House Speaker John Boehner and U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, the head of the House veterans committee, viewed the overrun as the last straw.

The Colorado delegation was able to secure a short-term extension for the Aurora project in May, but when lawmakers tried to get $150 million more in June, they hit a major road block: Boehner.

Around that time, Boehner — who knew Gardner from his House days — agreed to see the Colorado senator, but the news wasn't good, recalled Gardner.

Gardner recalls what Boehner told him: "I'm sorry this is happening to you. And I know this is not good. But we have to make a point. You're (expletive)ed."

Boehner then "grabbed my wrist and pulls me out of the office," Gardner said.

Undeterred, Gardner and other Colorado lawmakers redoubled their lobbying efforts after that meeting — recruiting allies such as U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, the chairman of the Senate veterans committee.

They also made a point of linking new hospital money with VA reforms, such as the requirement that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manage VA projects that cost $100 million or more.

And Gardner took time to form a relationship with VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson — the last piece of a multipronged campaign that ended with Congress agreeing to fund the hospital.

Isakson said Gardner deserved special recognition for his strong inside game.

"Cory was the most valuable player because he had experience in the House, he had Boehner's trust, Jeff Miller liked him and knew him. I knew him. And so he was kind of the go-to guy to make that work," Isakson said.

It also didn't hurt that Gardner has a knack for comedy, Isakson added. "He's the kind of guy that makes you laugh before he makes his point," he said. "He's got kind of a twinkle in his eye."

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